Recycled Glass Plates with a Purpose

For the last days of summer eating outside--a plate with a purpose. And a tree for readers of this blog who like the theme. Plates With Purpose is a series of specially designed glassware that is made out of post-industrial, pre-consumer recycled glass. A portion of the profits from their sales goes to non-profit groups.

Each piece is hand-cut, hand-coloured and shaped to give this one-off effect. Created by a Pennsylvania company, Riverside Design Group, they come in 11 different themes, to benefit 11 different charities.

Their ad says "What a lovely gift for a "tree lover" in your life!" How did they know! Fifteen percent of the proceeds of the sales of the Tree Design plate go to help the Court Appointed Special Advocates.

The other plates are equally charming. Each theme is associated with a different charity. The butterfly is for Forbes Hospice, the elephant for the National Autism Association, the forget-me-not is the Alzheimer’s Association, the healing garden is the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the heart is for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Pittsburgh, the ladybug is for United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, the stars are the Persad Center & Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, the wheat--- Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and the sunflower--Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery.

The small company is working hard to be environmentally friendly and keep their carbon footprint down. The plates are packaged in corrugated recycled paper, with a reuseable elastic band. They are using light-weight recycled shipping materials.